Spinning Silk by T. Cook

A weaver’s genius ignites the envy of her peers, the possessiveness of her mill’s proprietress, and the hopes of an unborn nation. Furi knows she was born to create, but the fabric of her life otherwise weaves mysteries. These things are more than they appear:

Shin, the gardener, with his unlikely power over life and death;
A mysterious illness with a selective death route;
Kitsuke artist Madame Sato who would fashion Furi into a reincarnation of her own dead daughter;
The princess of a figurehead emperor, who has strange loyalties to a humble gardener; and
The vaporous rumor of war with no apparent aggressor.

Spinning Silk is inspired by Japanese folklore including the love story of Orihime and Hikoboshi as well as a radical reimagining of the tsuchigumo.